This article claims that lucky charms and superstitions have no affects on the performance on how you do. All the lucky charm does is put you in a certain mindset that makes you belief that you can do it and then you have more confidence in yourself and therefore set a higher goal for yourself. The lucky charms do not actually have any magic to them, it just has to do with the belief that you put into that object's power. If you do not belief in the power of the object then it does nothing for you, since it is all just in ones brain. An example of this is when players on a hockey team feel that they cannot shave during the playoff session and every member of the team must have a playoff beard or else they will preform badly and cause the team to lose. This beard helps the hockey players because they is more confident in themselves because of the beards and therefore sets a higher goal for themselves with the mindset of "I can do this." If they do not have this beard then they will feel uneasy and anxious and feel that they cannot succeed without the beards, making it so they have lower standards for themselves. If one has low standards for themselves and the mindset of "I cant do this," then they will not preform very well. There are both positive and negatives impacts on holding superstitions. A positive impact is that one will feel a lot more confident in themselves if they have a lucky charm or follow through with a certain ritual, and confidence is key in preforming well. Another positive impact is that it gives a person something to belief in and something that is always true to them and will not turn on them, which makes people feel comforted. There are also a lot of negative impacts of superstitions. One negative impact is that one can become completely dependent on the superstition to the point where if they do not have their lucky charm or follow through with a certain ritual then they will feel off and extremely anxious to the point where they keep messing up on the task they are trying to preform. Another negative impact is that you give all the credit to the lucky charm or ritual for everything good that happens instead of giving credit to yourself. For example, if someone has a lucky charm that they use during a test and then they do well on the test, they will give all the credit to the lucky charm and not yourself, who is the one who did all of the work. This relates back to being dependent on the object and since you have so much confidence in the object you do not have so much confidence in yourself as a person who is doing all of the work.
Why "Magical Thinking" Works for Some People article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=superstitions-can-make-you&page=2
